Last Saturday, I poured wine, greeted regulars and strangers and bused tables at Contento, the restaurant I co-owned in East Harlem, for the last time. After more than three years of service, during which The New York Times ranked us twice among the 100 Best Restaurants in New York City and the Michelin Guide gave me its sommelier award, I had to say goodbye to my talented staff and lifelong dream of owning a restaurant. The combination of inflation, rising crime that required us to pay for security guards and declining profits simply proved insurmountable.

I’m crushed that we had to close Contento. I have to admit I’m also relieved. Running a restaurant in 2024 meant taking no salary while working a full-time hospitality job elsewhere in order to afford private health insurance. This is the cruel math of owning a small business and being disabled in America.

My story is one small part of an ongoing struggle for restaurant workers and culinary culture across New York City and the country. If you’re wondering why you so rarely see a disabled person like myself on a wheelchair on the floor of your favorite restaurant, why menu prices seem so high or why service feels uneven nearly five years after the pandemic began, the American health care system deserves much of the blame. If that sounds melodramatic, ask your favorite server.

It has always been difficult to sustain a career in hospitality, but brief rumblings of progress during the early days of the pandemic brought us some hope. In 2020, when the true value of essential workers and the inequities they faced finally pierced the public consciousness, it seemed like we were on the brink of major change.

A glittering cast of chefs from across the country banded together to create the Independent Restaurant Coalition, an organization that began to lobby for financial and legislative protections for restaurant workers. In May 2020, chefs, chain restaurant executives and other culinary professionals went to the White House to campaign for federal assistance for restaurants. I hoped that the silver lining of that horrific global crisis was an opportunity to create a more sustainable restaurant industry, with the kind of jobs that people can keep without worrying about the worst.

Those positions largely still don’t exist. Restaurants have reopened their doors and reservations at top tables are as tough to get as ever, but make no mistake: The restaurant business is failing the people who love and need it.